Bibishah, Reshnah and Binitah
Betrawati, May 25th, 2005

These three were neighbors of my old host family. This was the first time I got to see them when they weren’t babies or stranger-shy toddlers.

When I took this photo in 2005, many of the children I knew when I volunteered had since moved to Kathmandu. Some of the others who remained in Betrawati, tiny when I first met them but now much much taller, still ask to be picked up and swung around when they saw me.

In 2005, Kathmandu provided both the possibility of better schools, and at least the idea of a more arm’s-length relationship with violence from the Maoist rebels.

When I was first in Betrawati in 2000, there were a handful of uneasy but resigned young police who took turns keeping watch with heirloom rifles.

My second visit in 2002 saw the police gone. A wall of their stone-walled station all but removed by a Maoist socket-bomb.

In 2005, the structure sat abandoned, and a family was using it to store dry grass for their buffalo.

The Maoist civil war ended with a peace accord signed in November of 2006. I was so relieved to hear it.

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(the image above is from a rather smallish scan of the photo. I had to enlarge the image a little, which is why it may look a little blurry/pixelly)